29 members of 'violent' Insane MOB gang jailed in sweep

Members of Insane MOB are responsible for a homicide, attempted homicides and other violent crimes, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said.

More than two dozen suspected members of Insane MOB have been… (Orange County Sheriff's…)

October 29, 2010|By Susan Jacobson, Orlando Sentinel

Orange County investigators said Thursday they have jailed more than two dozen members of a gang called Insane MOB, a group they blame for killings, arson, drug-dealing, a failed murder-for-hire plot, gun sales and spraying a school bus with bullets.

The gang, which was affiliated with an alliance of Chicago gangs called "Folk Nation," operated out of Fade Factory barbershop on Hoffner Avenue near Conway Road, investigators said. Fade Factory owner Theodore Vazquez is among those who have been arrested, said sheriff's Lt. Victor Payne, who heads the sheriff's gang unit.

Payne said the arrests have broken up Insane MOB, which he described as the "most violent gang" he has encountered. Members were so feared that community residents have been reluctant to cooperate with investigators, he said.

The group was bold, with some members posing with guns openly on Facebook, Sheriff Jerry Demings said. At one point, gang members hit a school bus during a drive-by shooting, apparently by accident, Payne said. No children were on board.

Joshua "Brazil" Touchton, 23, was Insane MOB's self-proclaimed enforcer and hit man, Payne said. He was arrested in July and is in the Orange County Jail awaiting trial on charges including first-degree murder, solicitation to commit murder, trafficking in cocaine and sale or delivery of cocaine with a weapon.

A .40-caliber Glock that investigators think Touchton used in March to kill Michael Hawkins, 25, was found in a lake at Conway Road and the East-West Expressway. Hawkins' body was inside a car in east Orange.

During an investigation of nearly three years, deputies targeted lower-level members of the gang, who eventually led them to nine leaders, the Sheriff's Office said. Twenty-nine people have been arrested on charges that include murder, attempted murder, trafficking in cocaine, gun sales and arson.

Starting in 2009, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms assisted the Sheriff's Office.

According to deputies, Insane MOB was founded by Jose "Joey" Vera, 18, who was shot to death in June 2006 outside a strip mall on Goldenrod Road after getting a haircut.

At the time, a sheriff's spokeswoman said Vera was not a documented gang member, even though graffiti sprayed on the sidewalk after the killing read, "Mob Boyz," and the sheriff's gang unit investigated.

After Vera's death, salon owner Vazquez, 36, led the gang, Payne said. He was arrested in July on a cocaine-trafficking charge.

Insane MOB was one of 55 documented gangs in Orange County, Payne said. Now that it has been dissolved, "We're going to make it very difficult for anybody to fill the void of this criminal enterprise," Demings said.

Jackie Ramos, Joey Vera's brother, denied that he was a gang member. She said he was killed in a fight over a girl.

Ramos identified several men, including Vazquez, as cousins. Another man arrested by gang investigators, Jose Vera, 49, was Joey Vera's father, Ramos said. Another arrestee, Angel Vera was a half-brother, she said.

Ramos described them as "dysfunctional family" that her brother should have stayed away from.

"My brother has no voice to speak for himself," Ramos said. "You're taking murderers' and criminals' word for it. What's killing us is we're reliving this."

In May, a shootout happened in at Fade Factory. Vazquez's mother, who is not implicated in criminal activity, now owns the shop, Payne said, although corporate documents still bear Theodore Vazquez's name.

Ramon Aquino Jr., 38, is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Vera. Mark Aquino, 27, who has an "M.O.B." tattoo on his right arm, is serving 10 years in prison as an accessory after the fact to capital murder.